A Cool Notebook Cooler By Laurel1 on Jul 01, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

Last summer I bought a Dell laptop from Dell, over the phone. I asked a lot of questions, and the clerk asked me a lot of questions about what I needed, but the subject of a cooler never came up. I learned from reviews here that laptops and notebooks tend to overheat, and you should use them with a cooler. Silly me, I thought since it was a laptop, I could just put it on my lap and work.

I mainly wanted the laptop because when I'm really sick, as I have been, I can't sit at my desk and work on my desktop; I wanted something just for writing and editing, with the ability to burn data to CD that could then transfer the data to my laptop. I imagined myself sitting up propped against pillows in my bed, with the laptop on my lap, or maybe lying on my side with it next to me (I know, I should be sleeping or at least lying resting, but that gets old fast!).

So, off I went, early this month when I could go off and shop, looking for a cooler. I went to Wal-Mart, Target, Staples, and Best Buy. The clerks and Wal-Mart and Target weren't very helpful; they didn't seem to be able to grasp what I was looking for. I was still a little annoyed at Best Buy for steering me to the ink-sucking printer, and didn't really see what I wanted there. I ended up at Staples, and bought a fairly large notebook cooler by Antec.

It has several features that I really like. The fact that it's quiet is one of them, as is the fact that it actually does what it's supposed to. but more than that, I like the way it can hold the laptop at just a bit of an angle, and keep it steady when it is on my lap. I really like the fact that although it uses a USB port, it has a pass-throgh connector so that I still have the use of that port (I haven't needed it yet, buy I may for printing straight from the laptop, instead of the whole transfer to CD thing, since I've learned that a lot of CDs are "born bad" and never do work). The price was affordable, and it comes with a 3-year parts and labor warranty, that I didn't have to pay extra for.

I'd recommend this cooler to anyone who's in my position, and wants to put their laptop on their lap!